Psychoanalytic Cartography: A Review of From Sign to Symbol: Transformational Processes in Psychoanalysis, Psychotherapy, and Psychology by Joseph Newirth

Abstract

A Review of From Sign to Symbol: Transformational Processes Reading Joseph Newirth’s From Sign to Symbol, Transformational Processes in Psychoanalysis, Psychotherapy, and Psychology feels a bit like having an engaging conversation with a vastly learned teacher. Newirth’s style feels almost conversa-tional, an informality which belies the breadth of knowledge and scholarly acumen behind his work. In this review of his accessible, rich book, I will emphasize what I feel are his most creative contributions and use my own experience from a first career as a dance/movement therapist working with the memory impaired to demonstrate the applicability of Newirth’s scholarship to extra-analytic realms.